Call for a Dropoff
by innocide
Summary: KID never meant to be working on Christmas...and Akako never meant to be available in emergencies. "Santa-san! Is it really you!" Time to act fast to save--NOT steal--Christmas, and maybe maintain some dignity. One-shot.


Just a little Christmas drabble that got WAY out of hand. Review if you will, I'm interested in seeing how this goes over…

Disclaimer: If I owned any of Gosho Aoyama's properties, I'd have reached enlightenment already.

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Kaito had rules about stealing.

Do not steal; only borrow and call it stealing

Do not steal from children

Do not steal from the poor

Do not steal anything from the unfairly wealthy without ruffling their feathers

Do not steal when the taskforce has the day off

Do not steal anything rumored to be cursed or magic without first consulting Akako (this one he had added recently, for his own safety)

There several others, mostly small clauses about who to annoy, what sort of jokes were considered unfair, etc. The code was well-developed, well-used, and mostly made up on the spot.

In his current position Kaito wasn't really inclined to be thinking too much; the night's work was fairly leisurely, but still the self-imposed code was on his mind. He had no opposition tonight; he had announced his heist in advance, only to arrive at the museum and discover the gem displayed there was actually a fake. It was indeed a star ruby (and a rather impressive one at that) but it was not the Holly Star he had been seeking. Rather, it was a near-twin which must have been substituted for the real gem years ago. Kaito had promptly ditched the fraud and gone off to try and track down the genuine article.

It had taken him several snowy nights to find the jewel; he eventually discovered a British man who had come to Japan to marry had swapped the jewels before hopping overseas to start his new life. Apparently he had been denied it unfairly in his inheritance, and the guy had been a little unhappy at being denied the stunning ruby that was said to bring good fortune during dismal times.

So now here he was at the house of the man's son, carefully making his way to the treasure's secret hiding place. But he felt guilty.

Firstly, the man and his family had no idea they even possessed the gem; the old man had never told anyone about it before his untimely death.

Secondly, he felt bad sneaking into a residential home for a heist; it felt very low class and unsporting.

And thirdly, he was preparing to lift the item in question from inside an ornament on the family's Christmas tree. On Christmas Eve.

Stealing on Christmas was definitely on the no-no list.

Feeling rather ridiculous, he sifted through the different colored spheres hanging from the tree, seeking out a red one that was heavier than the others. After several minutes of dancing his fingers around jingle bells and spiny boughs, his hand closed around it. Relieved, he turned to make his way back up the chimney from which he'd guilty dropped, hoping he could make his way out again without smudging his cape.

But of course, not everyone takes the day off for the holidays.

Take for instance, Kaito later thought, a certain ass named Murphey. He could really do without the guy's rules.

Shuffles of fabric made Kaito turn and pause; and from behind a couch crawled a sleepy-eyed little girl wrapped in a blanket. She was blinking and muttering something about a glass of water, and might not have noticed Kaito at all if she hadn't looked around to try and determine which way it was through the darkness to the kitchen.

Unfortunately, the rainbow glow of the Christmas lights made him quite obvious in the dim light. Being a walking whitewall had its obvious disadvantages.

The blanket slipped to the floor as she stared intently at him. He could almost see a countdown running as the gears in her brain shook off their sleep to work towards a conclusion.

"Wha…….ah………"

All rational thought had ceased for Kaito. The only thing happening under his hat was the incessant ringing of a mayday warning bell.

"_Santa-san!" _She spoke barely above a whisper, but her small voice had reached a very high pitch. "Santa-san is it really you? Oh wow! Oh!" She turned and seized a plate off a lamp side table, offering it with her petite hands. "Did you try the cookies? I made them all by myself! Momma helped! Grandpa said you love cookies!"

Kaito's heart started up again once it became clear the little girl wasn't going to yell in fear…or joy. He collected himself, tried to analyze the situation, and gave up. She was just a kid, after all. (And even if he wouldn't admit it, he had a soft spot for kids. He'd almost been nabbed on more than one occasion thanks to his inability to disappoint a child.)

"Ah…..yes, that's right! I just got here, in fact! It uh….seems like things are all ship-shape here!" He gave the girl a thumbs-up before selecting a cookie off the plate. Rather large, it was an oddly lumped snowman sugar cookie, but he chose it because it was clear, compared to some of the others on the plate, that the girl had shaped it herself.

"Hm…." He pretended to analyze it up and down, and she waited with wide eyes as he took a bite of its head.

"_Aha!_" She jumped a bit at his exclamation. "I knew it! Not only is this cookie a spitting image of one of my friends from the north pole—it tastes _just _like cookies back home as well! Even better maybe! Here," he broke the remaining piece in half, and offered it to her. With a grin, she took it and chewed it gratefully.

Struck with an idea, Kaito ruffled her light-colored hair. "Say, I have to go up on the rooftop for a moment, to get your present. I promise I'll be right back." Never had he been so thankful for a full moon.

"But, uh….." She pointed to the red ornament still hanging from his fingers. "What's that for?"

"Eh…..it's uh….for….the reindeer!" He would have to kick himself later, for taking so long to come up with a lie. He usually did so well under pressure. "Yes, the reindeer like to see the prettiest ornament from each tree! I think this one will do just fine!"

He nodded at it approvingly as he turned towards the fireplace. Still holding the large plate in her hands, the girl asked (astounded at her own boldness),

"Can I see the reindeer?!"

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The phone was ringing.

Akako was roused rather rudely by it from a very nice dream (which either involved her killing or making out with Hakuba….she could no longer remember which it had been, or even which she would have preferred in real life). She was still disgusted at herself for getting one—true, it was free because she'd created it herself, but what on earth did a witch need with a cell phone in the first place?

Sometimes she agreed with Kaito; girls could indeed be difficult to understand. She spends quite a bit of her time snidely trying to get in Aoko's way of being near Kaito…..and the girl tells her she ought to get a cell phone so they can talk more often.

Mundanes, she had decided, could not take a hint.

So now she faced it down, glaring at it and it's incessant beeping (damn that Keiko for choosing a Velvet Garden ringtone), hoping that perhaps she would cause it to combust on accident. She got no such self-induced miracle, and seized it from her bedside table.

"W_h__**a**_**T **_**i**__s I_**t?" **She tried her very hardest to sound appropriately irate; she ended up sounding like she had laryngitis instead, as she tried to suppress a yawn.

Kaito….Kaito KID's voice rippled over the speaker, sounding a bit less….ripply than usual. He sounded as if he was posturing, very poorly, because he was trying to BS his way through the whole conversation to fool someone who was listening.

Akako eyed her pillow with longing. "Hai, what is it? Some of us need our beauty sleep, no matter how good we look without it…"

She blinked. She must be hearing things. He couldn't possibly have said that.

"….you're WHO? What? I'm not…….what're you…..is someone there?!" He was making no. Sense. At. All. She wondered vaguely if he could have gone mad. He seemed to be having an identity crisis.

And she was pretty sure she was NOT, in fact, an elf.

"Kaito, listen to me. I don't know _what _this is about, but if you can't be bothered to….why are you whispering?......you want _what? WHY?...._". She stopped, put down the phone,

and spent a good 2 minutes laughing, almost crying in the process (something which she was decidedly against; as funny as the situation was, she wasn't going to sacrifice her powers for it).

Then she composed herself. "Alright then…..so you want a sleigh and 8 reindeer, _Santa-sama?_ Well, I'll get right on that…._Santa-sama!_ Oh, and be sure to stop by the Nakamori house….I think I recall reading Aoko-kun's letter. Seems like all she wants for Christmas is y-"

He hung up on her. Still…..she'd grant his request.

She'd never received a Christmas present before—certainly never a present which had brought her so much glee. This being her first….she'd never let him forget it.

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Joji Sakara was a bit perplexed. Not at the fact that his daughter was still downstairs where she had been determined on staying—assuring all that this time she really _would _stay up late enough to encounter Santa himself—but at the state of things.

Last time he checked, his daughter had not been nestled neatly under the tree neatly wrapped in her blanket, wearing a white top hat and a ruby pendent the size of a baby's fist. Nor had there been a white letter hanging neatly from a bough above her.

_**For good little girls,**_

_**and good little boys,**_

_**winter brings hopes of idyllic toys**_

_**But only the good**_

_**enjoy full rewards;**_

_**tho parents may shop till hitting the morgues**_

_**For the greatest of treasures, lies close to home**_

_**A visit from someone who understands**_

_**The mind of a child, the most blessed of lands**_

_This KID has never seen a kid so good_

_So I took a page from the old man's book,_

_and gave 3 gifts;_

_a necklace regifted, _

_a well used hat,_

_ and (the most valuable of all)_

_time spent with some deer,_

_all, full of good cheer._

_-Kaito KID,_

_part-time Claus_

"uwah…..otosan? Oh tousan! Tousan, Santa came! He really came and I saw him this year! I got to pet the reindeer and sit in the sleigh and everything! And then, and then he turned our Christmas ornament into this pretty necklace! And he gave me his hat! Did you know Santa wears white when delivering presents on leapyears?"

Apparently, tousan did not know. But he did know what sort of story his wife was _not _going to believe…

"You owe me one."

Kaito glanced nonchalantly over at Akako. "Really? For what?"

"Oh, I think you know. And someday, when you stop pretending you're not KID, I'll call in the most embarrassing favor possible. And you'll know why."

Kaito scratched his face and tried to look thoughtful. "Is that so? I wonder what you could have done for KID that he would owe you such a debt for."

She smirked in that wicked little way that only a woman with a secret can. "Oh, that's not something I can speak of…..Santa-sama."

She said it so softly, it could have been the wind.

But it still took every ounce of talent he had to keep her from seeing him blush.

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**OMAKE: the other end **

"Hello, Akako?"

"_Hai, what is it? Some of us need our beauty sleep you know, no matter how good we look without it…"_

"Ah yes! This is Santa speaking!"

"…_you're WHO?"_

"I need you to tell the sleigh to land at this house again. Just for a sec, I know the reindeer are itching to continue on, but they can't keep circling every house I go into."

"_What?"_

"C'mon, I know I can trust you with this! You are my head assistant elf, after all!"

"…_I'm not…."_

"So if you could…oh, uh….yeah I'm need the reindeer to land again…yeah my phone is cool isn't it? Got it from the polar bears….no she's a little busy I don't think she has time to talk…"

"_Is someone there?!"_

"Yes, this cute little lady has been so good this year that I'm going to give her a tour of the sleigh!"

"_Kaito, listen to me. I don't know what this is about, but if you can't be bothered to…"_

"please akako I'm begging you…"

"_Why're you whispering?"_

"please I need you to conjure up a sleigh and some reindeer for me it's an emergency!"

"…_.you want what? WHY?"_

"please this little girl caught me fiddling with the Christmas tree and she thinks I'm Santa!...are you there?....hello?"

Kaito covered the phone; the last thing he needed was for the kid to hear Akako screeching over the phone in amusement.

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And there we have it. Got edited a fair number of times in my head before it was finished. I'm pretty pleased with the result, and happy to have tried my hand at Akako. Her plunnies have never made it to the page before….interesting that this one was the first survivor.

Review if the urge strikes you. Constructive criticism welcome.


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